This started as a cross stitching diary. I've always wanted to try out different embroidery techniques and have dabbled in Hardanger, goldwork, ribbon embroidery
and stumpwork. I am now enjoying learning crazy quilting and teaching myself dressmaking.

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Monday, 27 February 2017

My 4th Burdastyle in the Burda challenge for 2017. This is from the October 2016 issue and is #121a in the magazine.

I made quite a few changes. In the magazine it is long-sleeved and I wanted a short sleeve top. As the sleeves are in 2 parts it was easy to just omit the lower part of the sleeve to turn it into a short sleeve top.

On these types of tops I usually find they are too wide across the shoulders and too low, so I did what is now a standard adjustment of adding 1" to the width of the shoulders to bring them in towards the neck, added 1" at the back neckline and added 3" to the front neckline.

In the magazine they called for a fine fabric and the yoke is lined. Mine was a bit heavier, so I didn't bother lining the yoke so instead I needed to create a front facing, rather than the bias binding neckline I did a back facing also.

Fabric is probably a polyester that I picked up from the Hospice shop.

The front has a front yoke and below is pleated and then stitched down, giving a pintuck type effect.

Friday, 17 February 2017

My third dress. I again altered the neckline, this time lowering it and I think I've finally found the shape neckline that I really like. I need to draft a template from this so I can use it on other tops and dresses.

More fabric from the hospice shop, it is some sort of polyester. I avoided using it for a long time as I didn't really like it, but it looks much better made up. I had 5metres of it, so I still have enough for another dress.

Saturday, 11 February 2017

The last few days have been busy in my sewing room. From Burdastyle 8/16 #125 I made this top using a jersey from the Hospice shop.

I had issues with the neckline. the back neck gaped terribly and the front was too wide and low. I was able to fix both these issues by joining both front and back neck line by 2 inches to increase the shoulder length. Probably not an approved method, as normally it would lift the front too much, but in this case it worked.

A bit hard to see in the photos, but it has a tie front at the side of the neckline.

Another couple of blocks were completed for my quilt

I've taken part in a sew-a-long by Sweetpea. It is run on a facebook page. You get a discount on the pattern and 2 weeks to complete the project. This was my first time participating in their sew-a-long. This project was for a heart patchwork bag. I used remnants in my stash.

Front of bag

Bag opened and lining showing

back of bag

I'm still doing my cross-stitch as well. Here is an update on Gossips, pages 1- 13 of 72 completed.